‘Musical insect’ extinct in the UK for over 30 years to be brought back from France
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Extinct insects return to UK: ‘Like bringing them back from the dead’
- The New Forest cicada, a musical insect species extinct in the UK, has been reintroduced from France by the Species Recovery Trust.
- Eleven New Forest cicadas were released into a habitat at Paultons Park, near the New Forest, where they previously lived until the 1990s.
- Conservationists attribute the extinction to changes in land management and are hopeful that a warming climate will now favour their survival.
- Charlotte Carne from the Species Recovery Trust said it was “amazing” to see the insects return to the UK: “It’s like bringing them back from the dead.”
- Some of the reintroduced cicadas are already laying eggs in their habitat, but the success of the project will not be known until at least 2029 due to the insect's long nymph stage.